Sweet Releif It's November!

I don't think it's much of a secret that I'm not a huge fan of Halloween.  I'll go ahead and blame it on Darin.  He won't dress up.  I told him yesterday, that I don't think I've ever seen him in a costume.  He responded, "Yeah, that's because you've only known me as an adult!"

Or maybe I should say it's our disregard for Halloween that is one ingredient to the recipe that we like to call, "Marital Bliss".  Email me if you need to know what the other ingredients are.  

The happiest part of Halloween 2010 I think were the "Trick" and "Treat" pillows that decorated our family room for the month of October.  I really think that was the highlight. 

Of course, kids make every holiday more fun, and probably I'll miss it when no one wants to get dressed up and canvas the neighborhood for candy.  And it's true that we met some of the nicest neighbors we never knew that we had, while walking about the neighborhood on Sunday night.  And it's also true that if one must celebrate Halloween, one should really do it in North Carolina.  I think Jane didn't even have socks on, and Ruby wondered why I put a turtle neck on under her thin cotton dress, because it wasn't even cold.  Oh yeah, you read that correctly, it wasn't cold here in the South.  So for hospitable Southern neighbors, and a gorgeous fall night walking about the neighborhood, Halloween wasn't all bad. 

Oh yeah, and I loved being the chaperon mom to these two festive ladies on the obligatory pumpkin patch field trip:

But after the exhaustion of class parties and wardrobe drama, and a night at church for the annual trunk-or-treat fun, can you blame me for wishing it was all over when Saturday rolled around?!

Instead we all attended Henry's final day of his intensive basketball training camp, getting him ready for the up coming city league.  Can't say that Henry loved being woken up every Saturday morning since school started, but we can definitely say that his skills have improved, and for that it was totally worth it.  

After we got back from basketball, and breakfast, and after Darin and I took a long early Saturday afternoon nap, we knew that we could not squander away anymore of the most perfect fall day.  It was decided that the rest of the daylight hours had to be spent outside.  Thank goodness for the never ending supply of forested trails around the house.  Armed with candy from the night before and a few water bottles, we got lost in the woods,

watched the boys race across a bridge,

and generally meandered...

Until we admitted that we knew how to get out of the woods and onto a dirt road that would take us back home!

Which I decorated with graves, just so you know I'm not totally against holidays that bring families together.  Even if one of the major reason we took the hike in the first place, was to avoid carving pumpkins!  Don't tell the children.  I don't think they minded one bit, and if carving pumpkins is just one more way to try to bring families together, getting lost in the woods gave us plenty of time for togetherness.

Anyway, maybe I wouldn't have to hate Halloween so much if Darin would just embrace the true spirit of the season with me:

There is always next year...

Welcome November!  Darin is glad to see you. 

P.S.  In case you needed to find more ways to spend time at your computer, have you gone to Picnik for photo editing?  It's kind of fun.  Or at least I thought so, as you can tell.